More than Writers

 A few days ago, Deborah Jenkins wrote her blog on this site giving us a lovely quiz about how weather affects our writing. This jogged my memory of a particular day when I was trying to write in adverse weather conditions. I was indoors, in the warm when I wrote what turned out to be my favourite passage in Out of Silence. It was a very windy day when I was trying to write the planned chapter of the novel; the beginning of a storm. I kept looking out of my study window to watch the tall trees in my garden bend and sway. The sound of the wind and the movement in the garden could not be ignored. Each time I began to write my attention was hauled towards the dramatic scenario playing out in front of me. I gave up with my plans. Instead I let my protagonist look out of his window into the imagined park opposite. First he watched the weather then the whole scene unfolded in my mind and I wrote it just because I had to! I wasn’t going to use the story that emerged of a child needing h...

  How good are you at procrastinating? I am incredible at it - in fact, it’s   probably my best skill. I can work right through my ironing pile, eat chocolate, find a book I want to reread, even do other worthy things like washing up, putting up a book review or encouraging someone to do something important - which is really ironic. The thing is that if it were ironing I was meant to do, or cleaning, then I would probably keep putting it off. Sometimes I think about my W-i-P while I do mundane tasks, but if I’m not careful I will forget the glorious ideas I come up with while I’m cleaning the loo or decide they are not worthy of inclusion. But as I’m a retired psychologist, I should have plenty of ways to overcome this problem. I should be able to analyse my reasons for putting things off (Fear of failure? Tension? Anxiety? Loss of direction?) but I don’t think psychologists are generally well-known for successfully treating themselves.  Take relaxation. I have a ve...